Cloud Computing: A New Business Paradigm for E-learning

At present, most of conventional education forms are becoming not being suitable for requirements of social progress and educational development and not being able to catch up with the changes of learning demand in time, thus computer networks have brought opportunities for it. However, in traditional web-based e-learning mode, system construction and maintenance are located in interior of educational institutions or enterprises, which results in a lot of problems existed, such as a lot of investment needed, but without capital gains to return, without development potential and staying power. Cloud computing that introduces efficient scale mechanism can let construction of e-learning system be entrusted to suppliers and provide a new mode for e-learning. In this paper, we introduced cloud computing to e-learning, built an e-learning cloud, and made an active research and exploration for it from the following aspects: its work mode, architecture, construction method, external interface with the business model, challenges and solutions etc. Our results suggest that the introduction of cloud computing into e-learning is feasible and it can greatly improve the efficiency of investment and the power of management, which can make e-learning system development into a virtuous circle and achieve a win-win situation for suppliers and customers.